Making your music sound 'human', with Heba Kadry, Sarah Davachi, Marta Salogni and Faten Kanaan

Heba Kadry, Sarah Davachi, Marta Salogni and Faten Kanaan discuss why limitations can push creativity, how instruments can be an extension of the body, and why sounding “human” is better than pure perfection.

Egyptian-born, Brooklyn-based mastering and mixing engineer Heba Kadry has worked with the likes of Beach House, serpentwithfeet, the Mars Volta, Yaeji and former Music Life guest Mykki Blanco. She also collaborated with Bjork on the iconic Utopia album, and worked on a number of film soundtracks, including the Oscar-nominated biopic Jackie.

Grammy-nominated engineer, producer and mixer Marta Salogni started out as a live sound engineer in her home town of Brescia, Italy, before moving to London in 2010. She has since worked at some of the city’s most renowned studios with artists including Bjork, M.I.A, fka Twigs and Frank Ocean. She was nominated for a Grammy in 2019 for her involvement in Bon Iver’s i,i album.

Inspired by cinematic forms and folklore traditions, Brooklyn-based composer and producer Faten Kanaan builds cyclical patterns in her music that she uses to tell stories. Having immersed herself in New York’s electronic scene during the late 2000s, her most recent release, the spellbinding A Mythology Of Circles, is inspired by classical mythology and medieval music.

Canadian-born, LA-based composer and performer Sarah Davachi “builds temples out of tone”, and is best known for her minimalist electroacoustic sound. She has held residencies around the world and collaborated with artists such as William Basinski, Ariel Kalma and the London Contemporary Orchestra.